Intimidation of Palestinians in the Israeli-controlled H2 section of Hebron continued today as the Israeli military and settlers harassed Palestinians and international observers as they attempted to pick olives on their land in Tel Rumeida.
Around 40 students from different Palestinian universities marched onto the land at 11AM Saturday morning and began to pick olives along with local families, activists from Youth Against Settlements (YAS) and international observers.
At 12:30 PM the Israeli police confiscated identity passes for 20 Palestinians and, whilst checking their details, forced the group to stand together and individually filmed their faces.
The police declined to justify their actions, only insisting that they had a right to check the details of those present. The Israeli military became increasingly belligerent as protesters challenged the legality of the actions and began to push and shove Palestinians and international observers. After around 20 minutes the police returned the passes and allowed the detained Palestinians to leave. They then ordered international observers to leave the olive groves or be arrested, claiming that the Palestinian-owned olive grove is “Israeli land” and that it was illegal to be on the land and “illegal to be in a group.”
Rafi Dagan, an Israeli commanding officer, stated “I am the law. I am God” when asked to explain why he was flouting Israeli law by forcing people to leave Palestinian land under threat of arrest, without any paperwork to show that it was a closed military zone.
Earlier in the day, Israeli soldiers had pushed photographers attempting to document the olive harvest and confiscated an international observer’s passport for several minutes. Under Israeli law, passports may be shown to the Israeli military but it is illegal for them to be taken away. The Israeli military also briefly detained a young Palestinian man, apparently for running through the olive groves with a Palestinian flag, although he was released after around 10 minutes.
In addition to intimidation by the military, Israeli settlers arrived on the Palestinian land within minutes of the olive harvest beginning and began to harass people picking olives. A group of around 10 settlers gathered in the lower olive groves in Tel Rumeida at 11:55am where Palestinians were busy picking olives. Baruch Marzel, a prominent extremist settler, stood on a Palestinian flag in an obvious attempt to provoke olive harvesters. The military intervened as anger flared between the two groups and sent settlers back to their settlement.
Badia Dwaik, 38, is the Deputy Coordinator of Youth Against Settlements, a nonviolent Palestinian group campaigning against Israeli settlements. He stressed that olive harvesting in Tel Rumeida is not just about economic necessity; it is a form of political defiance and a way to “confirm our existence and to encourage the people to resist”.
The Palestinian land in Tel Rumeida is surrounded by four illegal Israeli settlements. A Palestinian educational centre overlooks steep, dusty terraces to the south which contain around 200 olive trees. The centre, established in 2006 after the building was reclaimed from Israeli military control, and the olive groves below have been subject to repeated attacks and incursions by settlers in recent years. Anti-Palestinian graffiti and the Star of David is clearly visible under fresh coats of paint on the walls at the back of the building, only metres away from a settlement.
The olive groves contain around 200 olives trees and olives were picked on around 70 trees today. Badia Dwaik lamented the poor quality of the olives and the sparse fruit on many of the trees, saying that Palestinians are often unable to tend the land for fear of settler attacks. There is also a chronic shortage of water in Hebron and the owners of the trees are denied permits to dig the land. For example, the YAS reported having problems with water circulation for three days and discovered today that the water lines had been deliberately cut.
According to Badia Dwaik, the YAS intend to continue picking the olives in the coming weeks as “people are scared to come and pick olives alone. And it gives a message: we will continue and never give up.”
( crossposted @ International Solidarity Movement)
Don’t give up, continue on.
I’d really like to see Baruch Marzel on CNN or the networks, we should give him every opportunity to describe his beliefs…….
I would recommend watching all four parts….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9d4BLaXZCM
Since as America goes, so goes Israel and it’s military “Gods” I’m throwing this news in as pertinent.
First.
Karzai said in an interview Afghanistan would back Pakistan in a military conflict with US, a signal of anti-American sentiment in the region
Afghanistan would side with Pakistan in case of military conflict between Pakistan and the United States, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said in an interview on Saturday.
“God forbid, If ever there is a war between Pakistan and America, Afghanistan will side with Pakistan,” he said. ”If Pakistan is attacked and if the people of Pakistan needs Afghanistan’s help, Afghanistan will be there with you.”
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton recently visited Islamabad and warned that Pakistan would pay a “big price” if they continued to ignore US demands, and threatened unspecified “unilateral” acts. Similarly, Senator Carl Levin on Friday urged the US to threaten to cut all ties with the Pakistani government to punish them”
* It’s worth remembering that Karzai was the “exile in waiting” that Bush picked to install as the US stooge ruler. LOL
Second.
Turkish jets pound Kurdish rebels in northern Iraq
Turkish jets bombed camps belonging to the rebel separatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, in northern Iraq overnight in response to a series of attacks on Turkish military posts Wednesday that left 24 soldiers dead. AFP – Turkish air force jets bombed Kurdish rebel camps in northern Iraq overnight in response to the attacks which killed 24 soldiers in the southeast, local security sources said Thursday.
Military activity at the air base in mainly Kurdish Diyarbakir province was very intensive throughout the night with many F-16 jets taking off to bomb the hideouts of the seperatist Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), they said.
PKK attacks against military posts along the border with Iraq killed 24 people and injured 18 late Tuesday.
According to press reports, the attacks were carried out when between 200 and 250 Kurdish rebels entrenched in the mountains of northern Iraq entered Turkish territory to carry out raids on several military posts.
The PKK, listed as a terrorist organisation by Turkey and much of the international community, took up arms in Kurdish-majority southeastern Turkey in 1984, sparking a conflict that has claimed about 45,000 lives.”
Third ..and Iraq responded thus.
“The Iraqi government condemns this terrorist activity by the PKK, and expresses its sympathy for the families of the Turkish soldiers,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.
Iraq is committed to collaborate with the Turkish government on security issues to prevent a repeat of such actions.”
The horses are out the gate, the chickens are leaving the barnyard. US losing control. Getting closer and closer to that Israel and America war against the entire ME and a good part of the rest of the world.
Such hubris, such stupidity and no help for it in sight in the US.
>> Rafi Dagan, an Israeli commanding officer, stated “I am the law. I am God”
The qualifications for god-hood ain’t what they used to be!
This article makes me ill. The only thing that disgusts me more is knowing that Zio-supremacist pukes like RW, eee and the rest of that loathsome bunch will either support, justify or simply ignore the immoral actions of the “Jewish state” and its representatives.
Your news are just as bad as those about the olive harvest, American.
“Rafi Dagan, an Israeli commanding officer, stated “I am the law. I am God”
“We ought to be beating our chests every day. We ought to be looking in a mirror and be proud and stick out our chests and suck in our bellies and say “damn, we’re Americans” .
Jay Garner, Iraq Proconsul 2003
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines03/0430-12.htm
Fast forward to 2011 and America can’t even negotiate to keep one base in Iraq.
“The Iraq war is over. Buried by the news from Libya, Barack Obama announced late on Friday that all US troops will leave Iraq by 31 December.
The president put a brave face on it, claiming he was fulfilling an election promise to end the war, though he had actually been supporting the Pentagon’s effort to make a deal with Iraq’s prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to keep US bases and several thousand troops there indefinitely.
The talks broke down because Moqtada al-Sadr’s members of parliament and other Iraqi nationalists insisted that US troops be subject to Iraqi law. In every country where they are based the US insists on legal immunity and refuses to let troops be tried by foreigners. In Iraq the issue is especially sensitive after numerous US murders of civilians and the Abu Ghraib scandal in which Iraqi prisoners were sexually humiliated. In almost every case where US courts tried US troops, soldiers were acquitted or received relatively brief prison sentences.
The final troop withdrawal marks a complete defeat for Bush’s Iraq project. The neocons’ grand plan to use the 2003 invasion to turn the country into a secure pro-western democracy and a garrison for US bases that could put pressure on Syria and Iran lies in tatters. ”
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/oct/23/us-withdrawal-iraq-defeat-bush-neocons?INTCMP=SRCH
Hubris is fantastic and it’s coming to Judaism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GC5kfx73ass